A sweeping core review of government services won’t necessarily lead to major layoffs in B.C.’s already-lean civil service, says Premier Christy Clark.
The line-by-line analysis of government spending, to be undertaken by Energy Minister Bill Bennett over the next few months, will hunt down red tape and regulations that are stifling businesses, hurting economic growth and killing jobs, Clark said.
It’s “going to be a little bit different” from the last government core review in 2001, in which ministry budgets were slashed by one-third and thousands of jobs eliminated, Clark said.
“Government is pretty lean right now,” she said. “We certainly don’t intend to grow it. But I think as a result of a core review we probably won’t see huge reductions in the civil service. But I certainly want to make sure we see reductions in the amount of red tape that we require from citizens and businesses out there.”
Clark made the comments Monday, after swearing in her cabinet at Government House in Victoria.
The union representing B.C.’s roughly 30,000 full-time civil servants said the government is already the leanest in Canada and there’s no fat left to trim.
“What is it we’re doing that is superfluous?” asked David Vipond, the director of negotiations with the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union.
“We’ve been reduced systematically for 12 years. They’ve been trimming fat for 12 years, what else do they think there is?”
If Clark’s core review is intended to improve efficiency or find ways to increase revenue from existing services — such as opening government liquor stores on Sundays — then that makes sense, Vipond said.
“But sometimes core review is really for another purpose, which is just cutting services or expenditures,” he said. “We’ve been ‘cored’ before, in 2001. It was just brutal.”
Former premier Gordon Campbell’s core review, launched after the Liberals won government in 2001, cut the civil service by approximately 7,000 positions.
The cutbacks also dismantled agencies such as the Children’s Commission, which led to more than 700 unfinished child-death review cases being shipped to a Victoria warehouse and forgotten until the resulting scandal forced an apology from Campbell.
That’s the kind of serious consequences that occur because of “ideologically driven” Liberal core reviews, said NDP Leader Adrian Dix.
“If you look at the children and families system, the disaster that came out of that theoretical policy exercise from big shots in government was frankly horrific for many children who had to live through that period,” Dix said.
Clark said she’s not seeking to cut all ministries, but hopes to minimize government presence in areas such as natural resource permits.
The premier convened her first cabinet meeting at the legislature Monday and said she hopes to recall the house by the end of the month.
Clark said she’ll push forward with a short summer legislative session to pass her updated provincial budget, even if it’s before she can regain a seat in a planned Westside-Kelowna byelection.
Clark said she’d also consider issuing a formal apology for the Chinese head tax this summer, if such a move would have Opposition NDP support.
“If it comes up in this session, of course, we’ll support it,” Dix said.
